bondo on a TV? (1961 Zenith)

[Adam]

The plastic CRT mask was cracked into two pieces in the top right corner. When I started sanding this thing I noticed it was actually cracked into several pieces and held together with a combination of rubber cement and bondo, and that alot of it was made entirely out of bondo. Several bits of that corner were missing, so what I wound up doing was buliding up that whole corner out of epoxy and kind of setting those pieces I did have in a sort of sea of epoxy and then sanding it all to fit. As you can see that one corner isn't entirely right, it's too rounded compared to the other ones. The very edge of the corner was a part that was preserved, but for some reason, the guy working on it before had sanded the plastic down too much, I could try and build it up again with more epoxy, but now I just want to move on to reparing some of my other sets, I've been messing with this one for about 2 months now. And at the moment I don't even have one working color set. So I think I'm just going to paint it the original white and leave it like this (that's black primer on there now). I also considered repainting the cabinet, (there's a small dent in the top, and a few scratches on the sides), but I think I'm going to leave it as-is for now.
In addition to the broken CRT mask, that gold colored speaker grill had many of the holes filled with something that more closely resembled cement than anything else I can think of. I poked out all those holes with a needle, and repainted it. Also the piece in the back where the antenna screws on was broken, and I wound up replacing that with one from a junk chassis, (that's why it has 3 screws).
But even with all that damage to the cabinet, like many of these old Zeniths, it still worked as is when I got it, but I did recap it anyway.

[jpdylon]

I've learned that JB weld works well on Broken plastics. Fit everything together as best as you can. THen you can use a soldering iron to fuse the plastic together in spots along the crack/break (kinda like spot welding) just enough to hold it together. Then make a light crosshatch pattern using an exacto knife across and around the broken area. This makes a better adhesion point for the JB weld. Then mix it up, and slather it on generously around the broken area. wipe off any that seeps through the cracks and let dry for a day. works pretty dam well.

[Adam]

Yep, that's what I used, the JB Weld, it works great on plastic, I discovered it when looking for something to repair a broken plastic grille on a 1984 Chevy truck. I think I will try that soldering iron trick next time I do this - the stuff sets so slow that trying to get everything to stay in postition can be a problem.

[Adam]

Finally got it all put together. I changed that corner that was too rounded off, it bothered me too much every time I tried to watch the set. I was going to paint it white which I think was the original color, but the white paint I had reacted strangely to the primer I had used and lifted, so I went with the gold I had already used on the speaker grill.

[jpdylon]

Looks great! If I had never owned one I would have said its original. Excellent job.

[andy]

.. .

[Carmine]

What is on the set during your photos? Or did you have some woman dress up in 1960s hair/clothes and pose for you?

[Adam]

It's from a time travel show from the 80s called the quantum leap. It's kind of like the time tunnel, (he has no control over where and when he winds up) but this guy when he travels back in time manages to switch places with someone in the past, and everyone there thinks he looks like the person he replaced. As far as time travel shows go, in my opinion it's not as exciting as older shows such as the time tunnel and the like, but they seem to keep putting him back in the 50s and 60s, so it does have a good amount of old cars and sets. They are good about always getting the cars right for the year, but occasionally miss by a few years on the sets, I spotted a late 60s rectangular set in the mid-50s. That set is clearly a Zenith, but here is another roundie from the show I was unable to identify. I had to crank up the brightness all the way in order for those controls on the right of the set to come out at all in the picture, so the picture is a bit washed out.